Immortal Rider_ Lords of Deliverance Series_ - Larissa Ione [116]
Leaning in, he kissed each shoulder as he pushed the robe down. It pooled on the floor, and he kicked it away so nothing was touching her creamy skin except her Seal and agimortus pendants.
When he brought his hand down to cup one breast, she gasped his name and threw her head back. He seized the opportunity to ravage her neck with kisses as he stroked her. Her long, lean body was the definition of elegance, the perfect blend of hard and soft, and in moments, he forgot the whole, make it last, thing, because he found himself rubbing against her, straining, mating with her even with all his clothes on.
A sudden pounding on the door had him wheeling around in a snarl. “Dammit, Ares, I fucking told you—”
“Limos!” The unhinged voice didn’t belong to any of her brothers, and she scrambled to throw on her robe.
“What is it, Kaholo?” She whipped open the door. One of her servants stood there in the doorway, his hands covered in blood.
“It’s Hekili,” he said roughly. “He’s been… butchered. There’s a message for you. Lucifer… he said that you took his pet, so he took yours.”
Twenty-nine
Ares couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this angry or hurt. Oh, he’d been murderously furious at Pestilence when he’d captured Cara and meant to torture her to death, but this was different. Ares didn’t want to kill Limos. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, but right now it was taking every ounce of restraint he had to keep from going on a rampage. There were battles all over the world to join. He wouldn’t take sides—he’d just fight. And kill.
He gated himself back to Thanatos’s place, and wasn’t at all surprised to find that all the wedding guests had gone.
Cara approached him as he crossed the great room toward Than. “Everyone left out of respect for you and Than, but they want you to contact them if you need anything. Are you okay?” Her sea-green eyes were dark with worry, and her concern helped level him out. She didn’t deserve to feel the weight of his fury.
But she didn’t deserve to be lied to, either. Clearly, there had been way too much of that going on for way too long. “I don’t knple h ofow,” he admitted. “What Limos did was—”
“What she’d been raised to do.”
He jerked. “You’re defending her? She’s the reason my family was killed. She stole Deliverance and conspired to break our Seals. She betrayed us all.”
“I’m not defending what she did.” Cara laid her hand on his chest, which always had a calming effect on him, even through his armor… but then, her very presence turned the hard leather to soft doeskin, so he could feel her touch right through it. “But keep in mind where she grew up and who raised her. She didn’t know any better.”
“She still should have told us before this.”
“I’m sure she’s regretting that decision.” She went up on her toes and pecked him on the lips. “We should go. It’s time for Rath’s feeding.”
“Give me a second to talk to Than.” He pulled her close, needing the brief, full-body contact for just a second. “I’m sorry about the hellhound Pestilence killed.”
“I am too,” she murmured. “But I’m glad everyone else is safe. Tonight could have gone a whole lot worse.”
Ares didn’t tell her he had a feeling the “worse” was coming. Maybe not tonight, but soon.
He left her to help Than’s vampire staff with cleanup, and joined his brother at the hearth, where he was standing very still, head bowed, doing his best to keep himself under control.
“I’m guessing Arik was successful in freeing Limos?” Than’s voice was icy cold and as calm as the ocean before a storm, and Ares’s hackles raised.
“It appeared so.”
Thanatos peered into the fire, the flames dancing in his eyes. “Losing Reseph was hard. But the things he’s done since his Seal broke have been because he isn’t himself.” Around his feet, the shadows began to swirl. “But with Li… she did what she did with no broken Seal. Because of her, we suffered the curses. And now we could have Lucifer